Young Magic brings dream pop to Union Transfer

By DENNY DYROFF, For the Journal Register News Service

Monday, January 28, 2013

Right now, there are enough categories, genres and sub-genres in the world of rock to fill up a pop music lexicon.

Young Magic, a Brooklyn-based musical outfit, performs in a style that has been described as ‘dream pop.” If you’re wondering what that means, you can find out first-hand when Young Magic visit Union Transfer in Philadelphia for a show on Jan.29.

The band, which has a nucleus of Isaac Emmanuel and Melati Malay, released its first full-length LP “Melt” in 2012. The album featured field recordings from their individual travels around the world with various samples of soul, psychedelic, trip-hop and electronica. It was recorded in a number of international locations including Argentina, Germany, Brazil, Iceland, Spain, the U.K., Australia and the United States.

“We were a four-piece when we first started playing live,” said Emmanuel, during a phone interview from the road late last week. “Now, we’re a three-piece. But, the core has always been Melati and myself. We’ve collaborated with different people along the way.”

Emmanuel is a native of Sydney, Australia and Malay hails from Djakarta, Indonesia.

“I met Melati in New York when I was travelling,” said Emmanuel. “Then, she came back to Australia. It all happened very sporadically -- and organically.

“We were travelling in different paths around the world. We would record to our laptops. Whatever we have available dictates how we record. I was just in Morocco for two weeks with just a computer and a microphone.

“When we were making the album, we had a lot of different sounds. Then, we went to Brooklyn when we had a couple months to hunker down. We tried to do the album chronologically in the rough order the songs were made. It was kind of like a map.

The map led to the release of an album that is very interesting sonically and that led to a string of live performances.

“At the time we were making the album, we had no intentions of ever doing the stuff live,” said Emmanuel. “Melati plays guitar and sings and I play keyboards and samplers. I bring a spectrum of color into the palette. In a live performance, our music becomes much more percussive.

“We’ve been working on the next album. It’s happening very much in the same way as the previous one. We record bits and pieces when we can. We’re halfway through the next record and we’re starting to play some of the new songs on this tour.”